Duterte regains ‘excellent’ trust rating – survey

The liberation of Marawi City after a five-month war against Daesh-inspired terrorists boosted the big jump in President Duterte’s net trust ratings, Malacañang said Friday.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that President Duterte has earned +75 points in its 2017 last quarter net trust rating. The said figure made Duterte regain his ‘excellent’ rating after suffering a dip to +60 in September, 2017.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in a press briefing in Valencia City, Bukidnon, noted that the ratings show high public satisfaction with the performance of the President across all socio-economic classes in all education levels in both urban and rural areas.

However, Roque assured that even with the ‘excellent’ rating, the Palace will leave no room for complacency.

“We therefore assure everyone that the Chief Executive, along with his team, will remain undistracted in improving the lives of the poor and marginalized, fighting criminality and enforcing the law, and curbing graft and corruption in government,” he said Friday.

According to Roque, the government’s success in defeating the ISIS-inspired terrorists in Marawi City was likely one of the factors that helped Duterte climb +15 points up to ‘excellent’.

“I think the fact that he has shown that he can exercise political will to defeat terrorists and violent extremist in Marawi; the fact that people’s optimism is at all-time high; the fact that manufacturing output is at all-time high. So all this indicate that the economy is growing as he promised,” the Palace official explained.

Earlier this week, Malacañang rejoiced over the high ratings Duterte got in another SWS survey which showed that 70 percent of 1,200 respondents believe that Duterte is better than former President Benigno Aquino III.

In the said survey, 22 percent said the two presidents are just the same when it comes to their performance as the top government official. Eight percent said Aquino was better than Duterte.

“I think that survey already proves what we already know as a fact,” Roque said Monday.

The same report showed that 69 percent of Filipinos who participated in the survey believe that Duterte’s actions are appropriate for a President.

Eighty-six percent of the 1,200 respondents also said they believe that Duterte is taking the country to the right direction.

“Incidentally, in addition to the 70 percent who believe that he is a better President, 86 percent still believe that he is taking us on the right direction. That is, again, a fact,” Roque said.

Most trusted gov’t official

Roque also addressed this week the high ratings Duterte got in a Pulse Asia Survey which showed that the President is still the country’s most trusted and most approved government official.

Based on the pollster’s 2017 fourth quarter survey, Duterte received the highest approval at 80 percent, and highest trust level at 82 percent, among the country’s top five national officials.

“This number showed that our people are aware of, and recognized the significant strides that the President undertook in his one year and a half month in office,” Roque said.